V for Vampire
by CaraMason
Summary: This is a story about Stella, who discovers something about herself that turns her world upside down. Will she be able to learn how to live with it?
1. Chapter 1

I heard the scream right before I woke up. It wasn't until I sat up I realized it came from myself. I had been dreaming about Elsa. Again. I had seen her running towards me, with her blonde hair dancing around her. He brown eyes had been watching be with a sad expression before she stopped and disappeared. Then I was awake. I looked at my watch. 7.25. I could just as well get up. When I stood, I grabbed the fluorescent pen and marked yesterday in my calendar. 16th of May. Fifteen days until I was safe. I went to the bathroom next to my bedroom and spent half an hour there to do something about my appearance. I went down to the kitchen. I met my little sister, Hanna, on my way down.

"You screamed" she muttered and I shouldered my way past her. Elsa was the last thing I wanted to talk about. I went into the kitchen and saw my mom with the newspaper. She looked up when she heard my steps. It was like looking at an older version of myself. Mom and I looked very much alike, everything from the long, black hair and small nose to the green eyes and the little too thin lips. I looked at her newspaper and saw that she was reading an article about a family whose son had evolved. Mom saw what I looked at and sighed.

"You have fifteen days left, you will get through." she said and I turned to the cupboard and took a cup. I waited until I had poured the coffee before I answered her.

"We don't know that" I said while I sat down and held my hands around the cup. What was it I was afraid of? Afraid is the wrong word; I was more worried. The year you turned 15, you could evolve into a werewolf during the month of May. Two representatives from the werewolves visited the family. The representatives took the child to an unknown place. Many parents were relieved when the representatives came, while others made a scene about it. The same thing could happen the year you turned 16, but this time you could evolve into a vampire. I hade made it through the werewolf-month, now it was just the vampire-month left. I was worried I would evolve, and what could happen to me if I did. The risk was there, in fifteen days.

I was pulled from my thoughts when the doorbell rang. I drank what was left of the coffee and put the cup in the sink before I opened the door. It was my friend Wayne from school. He was waving with a white little paper bag.

"I guessed you wasn't going to eat breakfast as usual, so I bought you this" he said and gave me the bag. I opened it and found a breakfast bagel from my favorite café.

"Thanks" I said and hugged him before I put on my black boots and jacket. I took my school bag and said goodbye to my parents. We went outside to Wayne's green scrapheap to Volvo. He had been working like an animal since he was 13 to afford half of the Volvo, which he shared with his brother. Scrapheap or not, it was a car. I sat down in the passenger sear and took a bite of my bagel. It took three attempts to start the car before it started to roll down the street towards the school. We sat in silence and I buried myself in my thoughts. I looked out the window and counted streetlamps while I muttered to something Wayne said.

"Hello? Earth to Stella?". I came back to reality and looked at him.

"Sure, you usually disappear into your thoughts, but you usually don't space out like_ that_" he said and I shrugged.

"I have a lot in mind" I said and Wayne chose not to answer. I knew he thought I was thinking of Elsa. He wasn't wrong. I threw the leftovers of my bagel in the bag when he drove into the parking lot of the school. We went out of the car and stood before the three, white buildings that formed my school.

It wasn't until lunchtime the subject Elsa came up in an actual conversation and not just in out minds. I, Wayne, Abby and Tara waited for our fifth member to arrive, Nathan.

"So, what do you think Elsa is doing right now? Running around, howling?" Wayne said and picked in his food. It was meat stew. Again. Tara shivered and shook her head. Tara was as afraid of werewolves and vampires as my dad was.

"I think she is okay" Wayne added, as if he could read my minds. I wasn't worried about the risk that she had evolved; I was worried that she wasn't okay.

"We don't know if she evolved, she said she was moving" Abby said and Wayne snorted.

"Without calling at least once in a year? Don't think so" he said and put down his fork. He had given up, the stew didn't get tastier when he picked in it.

"What are you talking about?" Nathans voice said behind me. He sat down between Tara, and me who played with her hair. She pretended she didn't heard what we were talking about. Our gang was now as complete as it could be without Elsa.

"The gang's own werewolf" Wayne said and Nathan jumped into the discussion. They loved to discuss theory of what had happened to Elsa, even though both of them were sure she had evolved. I stopped listen after a while. I knew somewhere inside of me that Wayne was right. Elsa hadn't contacted anyone in a year; it was clearly suspicious. If she had moved to North Carolina as she had said, she should at least have called her best friend once. But neither the others nor I had heard a sound. Even though the odds that she had evolved were big, I didn't want it to be true. Not because I was afraid, but because it meant that I would never see her again. I was pulled from my thoughts when Tara reminded us that our last class for the day started in ten minutes. We went together to the classroom where we saw a group of girls from the class. One of them was missing, and three of them cried.

"What has happened?" Wayne asked and the girls turned to us.

"It's Enya. She has evolved" said the fourth girl and Tara sounded like she was going to vomit.

"We met her today", said one of the crying girls, "her eyes were yellow and she left after we had met. We don't know where". They all hugged and we stood in silence until our teacher arrived. We used the whole lesson to whispering about Elsa and Enya's fates while we looked like we were listening to our teacher talking about the Civil War. Wayne and Nathan came up with the brilliant idea of driving Wayne's scrapheap to North Carolina and find Elsa.

"You know it takes two days to drive from Sacramento to North Carolina?" I whispered and Nathan smiled. I turned to the teacher and tried to put what he said on my mind. All I could think of was Elsa. Where was she? Was she even in the USA? What if they had sent her to Europe or the other side of the planet? I spent the rest of the lesson imagine worse and worse scenarios where Elsa was. I turned to my friends when the lesson ended. Wayne and Nathan were still discussing how best to drive to North Carolina while Tara stared at Enya's friend's backs as if they were infected with something. We went out from the classroom and collected our belongings from our lockers. When we stood next to Wayne's car we decided to meet up the same night and try to contact Elsa. It was something we had tried to do more than once. Nathan offered his house and we parted. Wayne and I sat down in his car and the others went their ways. Wayne left me next to my house, and it wasn't until he left that I saw her. It was a woman with long, light brown hair. She stood across the street, next to a street lamp. She was talking on her phone, but I could only catch that she seemed upset. She hung up, looked right at me and smiled before she turned and started to walk down the street. It felt like she didn't belong here in some way. I came into the house and was greeted by our two dogs; a French Bulldog named Frank and a Corgi Pembroke named Milton.

"I'm going out with the dogs!" I said and got a muttering noise from the living room as an answer. I opened the door and the dogs ran out like bullets. We started to go down the street and the dogs ran around and sniffed on everything. When we passed a café, I saw the woman again. She wasn't alone. She was talking to a man in his twenties, with dark brown hair in a little ponytail in the neck. I heard a little of their conversation.

"They should be here according to Helia, I propose we prote…". I frowned. It sounded like a weird topic. Not that I put my nose in other people business, but it was something different with both the man and the woman. I shook my head and let it go, even if it was something, I would never get to know. I turned left and went into the dog park. I released Frank and Milton and let them run around. I sat down on a bench and looked around. It was a beautiful park, with big trees and a pond in the middle. Balls and dog toys flew around in the wind. I sat there for a while and thought about how much Elsa loved to be here with me. I called the dogs after half an hour and went back home. When I walked by the café was neither the man nor woman there.

It was Nathans little sister who opened the door when I arrived. She had the exact same light brown color on her skin as her brother and the exact same shade of black hair. It was just her green eyes that differed from Nathans brown. She let me in and Nathan and the others met me in the hallway. We went into Nathans room where a laptop stood.

"There is no use", Tara said and we looked at her.

"What?", she said sullenly, "it's not like she is going to answer"

"You are just afraid", Abby said and no one could ignore to hear the cold in her voice. Nathan pressed "call" on the screen and we waited. Even though I had done this a million times by myself, I got nervous. No one answered. Nathan hung up and we looked at the screen. It was Abby who broke the silence.

"It seems like she has so much fun that she can't answer". It was the nice way of saying "there is no use. We should stop hoping". Nathan reached for something on his wardrobe and pulled down a game we always played when we were at Nathan's: Risk. As soon as we started to play, we forgot about Elsa for a while, at least.

"Ha! I win with Africa, South America and Europe!" Abby shouted after a few hours of playing.

"Yeah, I had to let you win, I didn't want you to cry", Nathan said and Abby rolled her beautiful, blue eyes and punched him on his arm. We had a discussion about who was the best player, without success. After I while, we decided to go home since it was late. Abby and I went together for a while, until she was turning right to get to her house. When I walked by myself, I saw a figure next to one of the houses. I got a nasty feeling in my stomach, like I was going to vomit. Suddenly, I heard steps behind me. I looked back and a man with a long leather coat and no hair on his head walked behind me. I went faster. So did he. I stopped. So did he. I dialed mom's number when I started to walk again. If something happened, I could call her and she could do something. There was a light in one of the houses. Would they hear me if I screamed? When I was thinking of the worst scenarios, I saw someone in front of me. It was the woman from earlier. She walked towards me, and I heard how the man behind med went into the woods. She passed me, and I looked back to se her go into the woods as well. I walked fast to my house, and went up to my room. When I looked out my window, I saw her stand next to the street lamp as she had been doing earlier. I went to bed. It felt good to have her out there in some way.

I woke up to the sound of voices the next morning. I went up and marked another day on my calendar. Fourteen days left. I put on the clothes from the day before and put my hair up before I went down to see who was talking. I could hear my dad's voice, but I didn't recognize the other. I came into the living room. My mom and sister sat in the sofa, and my dad stood up across from a man with dark brown hair put up in a little ponytail in the neck. It was a woman by the wall, a woman with light brown hair. I looked in the man's eyes and I suddenly realized what I though was different with him. His eyes were yellow. They were here to get someone. It wasn't hard to guess who.


	2. Chapter 2

I couldn't take my eyes from his. They weren't bright yellow, more like gold. I stopped stare when he hold out his hand.

"My names is Darius and this is Jane", he said and pointed at the woman, "we are here to offer you a spot in our school". I frowned. School? I looked at mom, who looked as confused as I felt. I grabbed Darius' hand, said my name and shook it. My dad looked like his breakfast was on its way up again.

"School?" I asked and Darius smiled. I noticed his white teeth, but also that the canine teeth where a little bit longer and sharper.

"I thought they were going to be more visible" I blurted and he laughed. I saw how the woman named Jane smiled.

"The school's name is St Redwood, and is located next to North Carolina…". My stomach froze for a moment, but I managed to hear what he said, "…and is a school for people like you and me. Vampires". When he said the last words, by dad clenched his fist until it was white. He seemed to have a hard time controlling his feelings.

"You must be wrong", I said surprisingly calmly. I seemed calm, but it was a war inside of me. I wasn't going to be a vampire; I was going to be a human. I just had fourteen days left. I was going to be a human in the rest of my life. I saw in my mind how my world collapsed. I saw how I was sitting alone, frozen shut from the society, in a dark room, malformed. I bubble of anger grew inside of me and I couldn't stop myself. I did what my dad wanted to do so badly. I clenched my fist and punched Darius on his cheek. For you who haven't punched someone, I recommend to continue on the same path. It hurts as much, if not even more, on you as it does on the person you punch. It wasn't until the second after I realized what I had done. I looked at my mom and Hanna, who sat with her mouth open like a fish. Darius, however, looked like nothing had happened. Maybe he was used to it.

"The first sign of evolution is a transformation of your eye color. It will go from your ordinary to yellow." The second after he said it, I felt dad's hands on my shoulders. Suddenly, I had his face five centimeter from mine. He stared at my eyes.

"Marion, come over here" he said with a high-pitched voice. I heard how my mom rose and walked over to us. She looked into my eyes, but contrary to my dad, she didn't look scared. She was calm and even smiled a little. I felt how the war inside of me calmed, but I still ran into the hallway to look myself in the mirror. I had a yellow circle around the edges of my iris. I took a deep breath and looked at myself. I decided to do the best of this situation. I walked back to the living room. It was kind of amazing how much Darius could smile.

"What else will evolve, except from my eyes?" I asked like nothing had happened.

"Your teeth will evolve right after your eyes" he answered and pulled out an envelope from his suit jacket while he talked. He gave it to me and I opened it. It was a note, which said "_Sacramento Airport, 6 pm_".

"You can tell your friends what have happened, but don't expect them to be happy. Because of the school and the vampire society's rules, you can't contact them when you arrive to the school, but they can visit you together with your parents sometimes." I nodded and he started to walk towards the door. Jane was right behind him and when she passed me she gave me a smile. I looked at her eyes and saw that they were bright blue. They disappeared through the door and left us in silence. It was my mom who broke it.

"Maybe you should go and talk to your friends". I nodded and dad looked at me for a second. He walked right past me and walked out the door and shut it. It felt like I was going to vomit. I felt how my eyes got watery and I felt my mom's arm around my shoulders. We stood there for a while before I texted my friends to meet me at the café. Before I went out, I checked myself in the mirror. The yellow had spread. I felt nervous and wondered how my friends were going to react.

* * *

Tara refused to sit down. She stood a couple of meters away from the table the rest of us sat by. She had screamed when she saw me and hadn't said a word since. Wayne watched me with some kind of fascination in his eyes, almost as if he was jealous. Nathan and Abby were shocked, but they weren't afraid either. I was surprised, I had been expecting a reaction as Tara's from them all: fear.

"So, you're going to North Carolina?" Nathan asked and I nodded.

"That's what he said"

"And we can't contact you in any way?". I shook my head.

"I don't know why, just that you can't do it for some reason, except for certain visits, and I guess they are organized in some way" I said and sighed.

"What if you meet Elsa?" Abby said and I stared at a burned mark on the table. That thought had hit me multiple times the last fifteen minutes. If Elsa had evolved, she might be on this school. I caught myself, actually daydreaming about this school and Elsa. I looked at my watch. Five hours left. I felt a bubble in my stomach, but it wasn't anger. I was nervous. I rose and asked a stranger to take a picture of us. I made sure he didn't see my eyes. Wayne convinced Tara to attend in the picture and she sat down as far away from me as possible. Her fear and my disappointment of her reaction didn't show in the picture though. When we were going to leave I felt my eyes watering again. This was going to be the last time I would ever see them. Everyone hugged me, including Tara. She was stiff as a stick and it wasn't much of her body that touched mine, but she hugged me at least. We stood in a circle for a while before I took a deep breath, said goodbye and went home. When my back was turned to them I felt the waterfall come.

* * *

An hour later, I hadn't done anything. I sat in my bed and stared at the bag I was packing in. It stared back. I had no idea what to pack except clothes. I heard a knock on the door and Hanna entered. She sat down in my bed.

"You promise to keep contact, right?" she asked and I nodded. She took a tank top she used to borrow from my suitcase.

"You know, I don't think this fit on a vampire, maybe you should let me take care of it" she said and I did something I didn't know I was able to do anymore. I laughed. I threw my pillow at her, and she screamed and threw the tank top in my face. We did that for a while and I felt closer to my sister than ever before. We packed the suitcase together and carried it down to the hallway. I looked at the shoes, and saw that dad's was still missing. If he didn't come home right now he wasn't going to be able to say goodbye. I felt how my happiness with Hanna disappeared in a second. I was disappointed at my dad. If Tara could accept it, why couldn't he? I thought about it when we sat down in the car, even though I couldn't do anything about it. He was afraid of me. I put on a pair of sunglasses and looked out the window. I didn't want to scare people if I could prevent it.

* * *

Darius waited for us in the airport. It was now half an hour before the airplane departed and I still hadn't gotten a ticket. I had no time to check in my luggage, either. Darius answered my question as if he could read my mind.

"You won't need a ticket. You're going with the school's private jet" he said and I felt how my jaw dropped. Private jet? The closest I had ever come to luxury in airplane was when I was five and entered the wrong part of the airplane. I stood in the First Class for a minute before a flight attendant took me to my real seat. Darius grinned at my reaction. It wasn't a bit better than his eternal smiling. We followed Darius through the whole airport before he stopped next to a door. It was time to say goodbye.

"We'll visit you" mom said as she hugged me. We stood there for a second and Darius gesticulated that I was going to walk through the door. We came out on a huge area with airplanes. We walked up to a white smaller plane and we walked into it. My jaw dropped again. It was decorated like a living room, with a group of a sofa and three armchairs. There was a mini fridge and a bar. I sat down in one of the armchairs. They were as comfortable as they looked. Jane, who sat across from me, smiled at my reaction. The plane departed and I looked out the window. I heard something being put down on the table between the furniture, and I heard something rustle. I looked and saw Jane trying to unwrap a toffee.

"Can you eat regular food when you are a vampire?" I asked and she nodded.

"Yes, but unlike the werewolves, you can't get full of it. But it is great to kill cravings for sugar" she said and I took a toffee. I got a closer look at her eyes. Suddenly, it hit me.

"You are not a vampire, right?" I asked and she shook her head.

"No, I'm a real werewolf" she said and laughed. Darius sat down next to her in the sofa and looked at me.

"I don't want to scare you, but when your eyes are completely evolved, you will get hungry. Hopefully, this will happen when we get to the school, so keep yourself close to me" he said and I nodded. I looked out the window and thought about my friends and how I could meet them without the organized visits. A thought hit me.

"Can you create another vampire? I mean, like in the movies, if you bit someone, they will become a vampire?". Darius shook his head.

"There is only one kind of vampire that can create other vampires, and that's the soulless vampires. As soon as a vampire kills a human, intentionally or by accident, his or her soul will disappear. The vampire turns to a soulless, evil vampire, or a Zai'ma, as they are called. Zai'mer drink human- and vampireblood for fun and for eating. They are incredible strong and fast. They can create other Zai'mer, which is a big problem in our society. ". I felt how the hair on my arms rose.

"Are these, Zai'mer, killing people?" I asked and this time, it was Jane who answered.

"Yes, they do. Fortunately, Zaimer can't, in contrary to regular vampires, be out in the sun. Humans are protected as long as the sun is up. In the night there is a risk, but a Zai'ma must be invited in a home to enter it, so as long as humans don't go out after sundown, the risk is minimal. Unfortunately, humans are not as smart as we think. They go out after sunset, so that's why werewolves like me exists, who patrols in the human world and protects them". I thought of the night I walked home from Nathan.

"So the night you were next to my house and the man walked behind me…?"

"That's was a Zai'ma for sure", she said and looked at me, "but don't worry, we always put patrolling werewolves next to houses of newly evolved vampires, your family is safe" she said and I nodded. I realized how many questions I had.

"Can you kill Zai'mer?" I asked and Darius whispered something in Jane's ear. She snorted. It was obviously something fun. All I heard was "Slayermaterial". I ignored them and Jane answered my question.

"Yes, you can kill Zai'mer. Most of the werewolves spend their lives to protect vampires from Zai'mer. They're using special silver stakes". As she spoke, she took something out of her inside pocket on her jacket. She held something that looked like a thick dagger. The handle was decorated with black details. Instead of a knife blade, it was one big spire. It was decorated with silver details. She held it in front of me and I took it. It wasn't as heavy as it looked. It was incredibly sharp though.

"So, you just take it and..?" I made a stabbing movement with the stake.

"Yes, right through the heart, it's harder than you think. You will learn a technique in school together with the other vampires. There is also a so-called "panic-technique", and that's pushing the stake in the Zai'ma's face. Silver works like acid on Zai'mer, so you can distract them if you need to run och make another punch"

"So, I'm going to learn how to fight?"  
"Yes, but not as much as the werewolves. They learn faster and are better built for fighting. That's one of the reasons why they evolve before vampires; they are using their first year in the school for training only. The vampires learn a self-defense technique if something happens to your protective werewolf" she said and I tried to catch up with her.

"So you'll always have a werewolf with you?" I asked and she shook her head.

"Not in the school area. That's protected with a defensive wall. But when you go outside of the school area you will have a werewolf with you. The same goes for adult vampires. They mostly have a werewolf working for them as a bodyguard. Like with me and Darius", she pointed at Darius and then herself, "Darius is my ward" she said and I looked at Darius. He looked like he could beat up a whole group of Zai'mer by himself.

"How does a Zai'ma look like?". I realized that I asked a lot of question, but neither Darius nor Jane seemed to have a problem with answering them. It was Darius who opened his mouth.

"They look like usual, just with red eyes. The saying is "_the eyes are the soul's mirror_", right? When a vampire transform into a Zai'ma, the eyes turn red because the soul disappears. Its said that yellow smoke is coming out of the vampires mouth, but that's just rumors. ". I took my pocket mirror from my handbag and looked at myself. The only part that was green was a little area close to the pupil. In some way, I thought it fit me. I looked at Darius, who gave me a phone.

"This is your new phone and phone number. The reason we do this is because of the risk with Zai'mer. It has happened that Zai'mer have tracked down vampire's families and friends through phone contact. We want you to be happy at the same time, so we put guards close to human born vampires families so you can keep contact with them, but you are not allowed to talk to your friends until visit day". So there was a pretty good reason why you couldn't talk to your friends, even though it was sad.

* * *

The rest of the flight went well. We went out of the plane when it had landed. I was shocked. Even though it was dark outside, I could see as if it was daylight.

"You are not the only one to react like that", Darius said and smiled, "that's the way vampire eyes work, they work best at night since that's when the day starts for us". I listened at the same time I tested my sight. I could see really, really well.

"Wait until you discover your hearing" Jane said as we sat down in the car we had walked to. She started the car and after a while, we passed a sign, which said, "Welcome to Halesworth".

"Where in a state called Halesworth. The reason you don't know about it is because humans don't know it exists. Humans drive around it and arrives to North Carolina, Halesworth is invisible for them, and are not on maps. We have three states like this, and they all are invisible for the humans, unless they are accepted to visit us, then they are visible for them only, and only for a while." Darius said. I nodded and looked out the window. We drove for an hour before Jane stopped the car. They went out and Darius stopped and waved at me to come forward. He held his hand in front of him and I saw a blue spark flying up and disappear. He took my hand and held it in front of me. I felt something vibrate between my fingers.

"Do you feel it? It's the defensive wall that protects our school. It's not dangerous for you, I just want you to know its existence" he said and I nodded. Jane came to us and she had her stake in her hand. She made a movement with her hand and mumbled something I couldn't hear. I saw a portal open up in the almost-invincible defensive wall. We went inside, and Jane closed the portal the same way she had opened it. I looked around. We were at the school area. I saw eight buildings, including something that seemed like a chapel. We went forward and I saw people walking between the different buildings. Some looked at our way, and others didn't bother. I got nervous again and took a deep breath before I heard my name.

"Stella!" someone shouted and I turned around.

"I hoped you would arrive soon", the same voice said and I saw who it was. It was a girl with blonde hair and a red dress. Elsa.


	3. Chapter 3

I was petrified. I looked at her and I saw that it really was her. The only things that were different with her were her eyes. They were bright blue, just as Jane's were. So it was true, Elsa had evolved to a werewolf. I didn't move until she put her hands around my neck in a hug. When she let go, she had tears in her eyes.

"I'm sorry", she said as she held my wrist, "I'm sorry I didn't said anything. I was so ashamed.". She shook her head and I couldn't make up my feelings. Was I angry? Sad? Disappointed? I realized I was happy. I was exceedingly happy to see Elsa again, werewolf or not. I was also happy to have a friend in this place.

"I'm happy as long as you are here for real" I said and she laughed.

"Come! I'll introduce you to my friends" she said and Darius cleared his throat. I had forgotten he was still here.

"If I can come with a suggestion, I propose that we let Stella eat first" he said and put a hand on my shoulder. When he mentioned it, I realized how hungry I actually was. He navigated me to the second largest building in the schoolyard, a multi-storey house. Elsa was right behind me as I went through the door. I saw a lot of doors, a flight of stairs and an elevator. This building contained apartments. Darius knocked on the first door. A woman in her forties opened. She had red hair and had a very nice perfume that hit me with the wind from the door.

"I'll stay here", Elsa said as Darius and I went inside. The apartment was big and beautifully decorated with paintings on the yellow walls. There was a huge sofa with an almost bigger TV in front of it. I looked around and the woman, who apparently lived there, took two chairs from the kitchen and put them next to each other. She sat down on one of them and looked at me. I frowned and looked at Darius, who nodded at the woman. I suddenly realized what they wanted me to do.

"No" I said and tried to move backwards, but Darius' hand was still on my shoulder.

"It seems disgusting the first time, but believe me, you'll get used to it" he said and I shook my head.

"I won't do it, especially not to an innocent human" I said, but when I looked at the woman, she actually looked disappointed.

"Yes, it's a human, but she is voluntarily here as a donor" Darius said and the woman nodded franticly.

"I want to be here, I love this" she said and smiled. I was torn between the urge of running away and my hunger. I stood there for a while, with decision-agony. Finally, I sat down on the chair and the woman pulled up the sleeve on her shirt. Her arm was full of white scars.

"This is like a drug-addict" I said silently, and I heard Darius snort behind me. Apparently, I was funny. The more I watched the woman, the more I realized that she wasn't wearing perfume at all. It was her blood I smelled. If this had been the day before, I would have probably vomited by the thought of it, but not today. It smelled fantastic and I felt the urge to taste it.

"Take it slow and easy" Darius said when I put the woman's arm to my lips. I felt how my eyeteeth grew. I must have been this Darius meant when he said the teeth would evolve. I opened my eyes and pushed the woman's arm to my mouth and I heard the crack when my teeth broke through her skin. The woman startled a little, but then she relaxed. She was enjoying it. But she wasn't enjoying it as much as I was. It was the best thing I had ever tasted. I felt the warm blood down my throat and my whole body was filled with euphoria. I was going to let go of the woman when a little voice inside of my head spoke.

"Why are you stopping? This is good". Well, it was pretty logical to me. I took a better grip with my teeth and I heard, from a distance, how the woman sounded like she tried to breathe through a very tiny drinking straw. I heard yet another voice, a man's voice this time.

"Stella, let her go. You're hurting her". It was Darus. The voice in my head didn't agree with him.

"You're worth it, you've been through a lot the last twenty-four hours". I decided to follow that voice when I felt a couple of hands on my shoulder and how someone pulled me back. I came back to reality when Darius pulled me off the woman and threw me on the floor. I think I was right when I thought he could beat up a whole group of Zai'mer, he was at least very strong. I coughed and sat up on the floor.

"I'm sorry", he said and held his hand to help me up, "but you were losing control". I took his hand and he pulled me to my feet. I looked at the woman, who had her eyes closed and was humming on a song. She was in her own little world.

"Don't worry, she'll be herself again in an hour. Every donor on the school is here as a volunteer. They've seen the consequences from a vampire bite. A vampire bite makes the person enter his or her own amazing world. It works a little like morphine. It's very addictive" he said and looked at the woman. I was slowly taking in what he said. It sounded horrible and weird, but at the same time not. As if what I had just done was the most perfectly normal thing to do.

"Will I lose control again?" I asked and Darius shook his head.

"What just happened happens to everyone who eats for the first time. Next time it won't be as hard to stop, but I recommend to have someone with you just in case". I nodded and looked at the woman again. I noticed a red flower on her wrist. Darius saw what I looked at.

"That's a Tattoo of Silence, as we call it. It's imprinted with the magic of the vampires and works in the way that if she chooses to move back to the human world, she can't talk about anything about our location or world" he said and I thought of my parents.

"How about friends and families? How do you get them to shut up?" I asked.

"They'll get one too, but not that big. They'll just get a little dot on their arm. The donors can pick how they want their tattoo to look like" he explained as we started to move for the door.

* * *

When we came out, Elsa was waiting for us. I had almost forgotten that she was here. She took my wrist again and led me out on the schoolyard.

"I'll show you around" she said and started to point at the buildings. She started with the biggest one, shaped as an L.

"That's the school. Werewolves and vampires have every lesson except fighting technique together". She continued and pointed at a building next to the school.

"That's the gym. That's where both werewolves and vampires learn fighting technique and self defence.". Now she pointed at the four buildings who was placed next to each other.

"That's the dorms. When the principal has spoken to you newcomers, you'll get a dorm room". The next building was located between the gym and the first dorm building.

"That's the chapel. It was first built as a defence against Zai'mer, as they can't cross holy places, but now it's a place for the more religious people at the school" she said and lowered her hand. Apparently it was no more building to show. I tried to put all the buildings in my memory when she nodded at the school's front doors. There were a few people in front of them.

"They're human born vampires. You should go to them, I think the principal will come out soon and talk with you. I'll wait for you nearby" she said and smiled. I walked slowly to the group; it was only ten persons there. As shook the last person's hand, Kyle, the doors opened. A woman with platinum blonde hair and yellow eyes came out.

"Welcome" she said and showed us into the school. We went inside and stood in a big entrance hall. To the far right, there was a door with a glass window. It seemed to lead to some sort of canteen. To the far left, there was another door, which seemed to lead to a corridor with lots of doors. Classrooms, I supposed. The woman cleared her throat and I laid my attention on her.

"My name's Mrs Smith, and I'm principal on S:t Redwood.", she cleared her throat again and started to tell us about the world we now had entered. This was what she said:

"There are four vampire societies in the world. They are located in USA, Russia, France and Italy. Italy is said to be the country in which the first vampire were evolved, but also where the first Zai'ma was created. The Prince and Princess rule the societies. A Prince or Princess is voted for when the last one abdicates or dies. The one He or She later marries, if they marry someone, gets the other title.

Vampires mostly drinks human blood, but if needed, they can survive on animal blood, but gets weakened. Vampires also weaken in the sun, but they can manage a few hours before they faint out of exhaustion. Vampires have really good smelling and hearing.

The majority of the vampires, around 98%, are worthy of controlling one of the four elements; Fire, Earth, Water or Air. To see if and which element a vampire is worthy to control, all vampires go through a simulator test, also called the Worthinesstest. This test will come up for you within the first month of the new semester.

The majority of the werewolves choose to work as guardians to the vampires, to protect the vampires from Zai'mer. Werewolves don't have special powers, but there are a few exceptions where the werewolf can have some sort of power besides from their fastness and strength. Both werewolves and vampires live for around 200 years, but can die in five different ways: burn to death, getting emptying on blood, get their hearts pierced by something, get decapitated or die of old age. ". I tried to remember it all, and chided myself for not writing it down.

"You'll all have individual mentors. If you have a question, just ask him or her. In most cases, the vampire who picked you up will be your mentor." Mrs Smith said as she walked through the door to the right. As I had guessed, there were lots of tables and chairs.

"This is the canteen. This is mostly for the werewolves, who eats human food, but you are of course welcome here as well.". She continued through a door in the canteen and we entered a huge room with sofas, a pool table, shuffleboard, loudspeaker equipment and a TV. There was also a door, which led out to the schoolyard.

"This is the school's common room. It's open twenty-four seven, even though I recommend you to put your time on your studies" she said and I looked around. It seemed nice. We went back to the entrance hall.

"Through the door to the left there are only classrooms. On the second floor, there are the teacher's offices and on the third floor are even more classrooms. I want you to explore the rest of the school area on you own. That's how you learn the best. The semester starts the first of June and you'll get your timetables. You are allowed outside the school area, as long as you have a teacher's permission and a guardian werewolf with you. Your mentors and I are here if you have questions". We stood in silence as she gave us envelopes with our names on. When I went out on the schoolyard, I saw Elsa next to the chapel. This time, she wasn't alone. Three persons stood next to her. I wasn't sure if I was going to go there, but Elsa saw me and waved. When I came closer, I could see the others better. There were one girl and two boys. The girl had red hair and yellow eyes, vampire. One of the boys had blonde hair and the others black. The blonde haired had yellow eyes and the black haired had green. Elsa introduced us.

"This is Victoria", she said with a gesture to the girl, "she is a first year vampire, just as you". She pointed at the blonde haired boy, "This is Jake", and pointed next at the black haired boy, "and Adam. Jake is a second year vampire, and Adam a second year werewolf". I frowned a little while I looked at Adam's eyes. Elsa smiled as if she knew what I was wondering.

"Adam has green eyes because he is a boy. All the werewolf-girls have blue eyes and all the werewolf-boys have green" she explained. I thought about something and turned to Jake.

"Do you control an element?" I asked and he nodded.

"Water", he said and made a movement with his hand. A thin beam of water came from a puddle not far from us. The water was assembled a few centimetres above his hand. I stared at the water for a few second before Jake let the water fall down to the ground again. I suddenly got really excited of starting my new life. I opened my envelope and found a key and a note. The note said:

"_Mentor: Darius Baker. Dorm Building: 1. Dorm Room: 34, 3__rd__ floor"_. Elsa looked over my shoulder.

"Building 1? I live there as well, but on the second floor" she said and we went over to the dorm buildings.

"Room 34? You live with me!" Victoria said and she actually sounded excited. She led us through the door to the building and up to floor three. She stopped in front of a door with the number 34 on, and a sign, which said; "_Victoria Carter & Stella Miller"_. I opened the door and entered a room with two beds, two wardrobes and two big desks. The walls were white except one, which was red. A window showed that there were similar buildings behind the dorm buildings.

"That's where the teachers are sleeping" Victoria said. I saw that Victoria had chosen the bed closest to the door, so I put my bags on the other one.

"We were thinking of playing some shuffle" Adam said and Jake nodded. I looked at my watch. 2 a.m.

"We have to keep Stella awake to put her in the diurnal rhythm, so why not?" Elsa said and I nodded. Of course, the vampires and werewolves day was of course now, in the middle of the night. I realized how tired I was, but I also realized that I had to stay awake for a few more hours. As we went out on the schoolyard, we heard a scream. The few of us who were out, looked at the donator's building where the scream had come from. Out from the building came a boy running. Fast. Way too fast. After him, Darius ran.

"Get in the chapel. NOW!" He roared and I felt how Elsa pulled my wrist. They boy ran in our direction, and I made the math. He ran really fast, we were never going to make it to the chapel before he reached us. Elsa suddenly stopped. She was frozen with fear. She had probably made the same math as I had. Behind the boy, Jane was running almost as fast as the boy. Suddenly, it wasn't Jane anymore. She had jumped up in the air and turned into a wolf. The wolf's fur had the same colour as Jane's hair. She landed directly on the boy, who punched her in the side, causing her to hit the ground a couple of metres away. He was incredibly strong. He was next to Jane, aiming his punch at her head, when he was lifted of the ground by an invisible hand. I looked at Darius, who stood with his arm stretched and his palm facing upwards. The wolf, which turned into Jane again, turned to Darius and nodded. The boy fell down to the ground and Jane put her silver stake through his heart. The boy turned into ashes and disappeared. I had seen my first Zaima. Darius came up to us.

"Are you guys okay?" he asked and we nodded. He turned to Jane.

"It was one of the newcomers. He lost control and I couldn't pull him back. I was going out for you when the donor died and he was transformed" he said and Jane swore.

"I'm sorry. You shouldn't have seen this" she said and Darius nodded.

"If you need it, you can come and speak with us about it" he said. He made sure we were okay before he and Jane went of to the school.

"Does this happen often?" Victoria asked, a bit shaken.

"It didn't happen last year, they are really good keeping an eye open, but I guess it happens sometimes" Adam said and we went into the common room. Everyone inside had been staring from the windows, and when we came inside, they surrounded us, fishing for details. Even though it was something horrible we talked about, it felt good standing there. I felt welcomed. It was a different atmosphere than home. Maybe this could be a good place?


End file.
